Cape Town - The Auditor-General’s 2019/20 Local Government Audit Outcomes revealed that 25 municipalities out of the 30 in the province received unqualified audit outcomes, but four municipalities are in arrears with Eskom to the tune of R125 million.
During a presentation to the local government standing committee, the Auditor General’s Western Cape acting business unit leader, Ashley Olkers, said that after a total of R73 billion expenditure budget had been taken into consideration, 18 municipalities were given clean audits.
“This is a 38% improvement from the previous financial year which only saw 13 local governments achieve clean audits. This year more municipalities have moved into the clean audit outcome category.
“Nine municipalities sit in the unqualified but with findings category. Two municipalities were in the qualified category and only one was a disclaimed auditee,” said Olkers.
Answering committee member Matlhodi Maseko (DA), who had asked about political interference in municipalities, Olkers said the legislation governing local government has been written in such a way that there are clear rules as to the roles of council members vis-à-vis the administration in a given municipality.
Committee chairperson Derrick America (DA) paid particular tribute to the West Coast District Municipality, which has been able to have clean audits for 10 consecutive years, scoring a national record.
The ANC was not represented at the committee meeting.
Meanwhile, asked why he skipped the meeting, EFF MPL Melikhaya Xego said: “We are dealing with preparation for selection of candidates for the local government elections which the ANC doesn't want to postpone.”
At the same time, Local Government MEC Anton Bredell named the four municipalities in arrears with Eskom as Matzikama, Cederberg, Kannaland and Beaufort West municipalities.
He said his department monitors municipalities in the province to determine if bulk service accounts are being settled timeously and that when it comes to bulk water services, the Overberg Water Board is the only water board within the province and there is currently no arrears debt owed by any municipality.
“We are very pleased to note that 26 of our municipalities are currently in good standing with Eskom and none are in arrears when it comes to water. Most municipalities in the province are rural and struggling with severe financial challenges, but there is, however, no excuse to not pay your Eskom bill,” said Bredell
Meanwhile, a new report released by Corruption Watch blames the corruption issues that have plagued municipalities throughout South Africa on bad governance.
Researcher and the report’s author, Melusi Ncala, said: “What is evident in the majority of corruption cases relating to local governance is that South Africa, broadly, has a leadership crisis.
“Not even a global pandemic could make them pause and think about the people they promised to serve. During their frenzy, the hardships experienced by the elderly, unemployed youth, the impoverished men and women, were compounded due to a lack of basic service delivery,” said Ncala.